The boss cooks, and the bankrupt company opens a state banquet restaurant

Chapter 197 How to conquer the small farmhouse?
After landing at the Shenyang airport, Su Chen looked at the city with his suitcase in confusion.

When I was a host, I never came.

Because there is a default rule in the food circle: Shanhaiguan is the only place to visit a restaurant.

Of course, I don’t know what the situation is now. It was like this when Su Chen was an anchor.

The biggest shortcoming of Northeastern cuisine is that it is not refined enough.

If the food is not exquisite enough, it will look average when it appears on camera. This will lead to the audience not finding it delicious no matter what the anchor says.

Take lotus cake as an example.

Tasty?
It's really average. But that thing is so exciting to look at!

If you bring up a basin of blood sausage, the old Northeasterner may be drooling from his mouth, and those southern potatoes will have fainted under the table.

According to the arrangement in the company, Su Chen flew over alone. There were still many things to prepare before the meal. Su Chen was not at ease if it was all left to Liu Shengnan, who didn't know how to cook.

Others drove over with Zhang Jiayi, and it was estimated that they would not arrive until the afternoon of the next day.

Su Chen used his mobile phone to hail a taxi and directly located the location to the address sent by Liu Shengnan.

Han’s store!
If it weren't for the fact that there wasn't even a hotel in Hanjiagou, it would actually be better to stay in the ditch.

It was getting dark now, and it took nearly five hours to get to Hanjiadian by car from Shenyang, which was still a long stretch of highway.

After getting in the car, the taxi driver looked at the order worth four hundred yuan and looked at the people in the back seat in the rearview mirror.

'wack'

Su Chen closed his eyes. To the driver, this journey was five hours, but to Su Chen, it was thirty-two hours!

You can practice twice in the practice room and rest for five hours.

So even if the driver chatted a few words, Su Chen remained silent.

Seeing that the driver had no desire to continue communicating, Su Chen got into the practice room.

"Farmhouse stove? Tsk, this is going to test my strength!"

This kind of farm stove cooking is very different from the fierce fire stove.

Su Chen remembered a blogger whom he had followed before. All his cooking videos were recorded in the kitchen of a hotel. Later, this blogger may have wanted to change his style and returned to the countryside to start making videos.

I made several issues in succession, all featuring farmhouse earthen stoves, and netizens soon discovered the clues.

It turns out this guy doesn’t know how to cook on an earthen stove!
In order to ensure that his personality would not collapse, the blogger later had no choice but to build a fire stove in the farmyard. Not only was this transformation unsuccessful, it also cost him many fans.

So after coming to the practice room, the first thing Su Chen did was: "Change the environment. Change to a farmhouse earthen stove."

He closed his eyes and began to imagine what the earth stove in his mind would look like. When Su Chen imagined the scene in detail in his mind, he opened his eyes again.

The familiar delicacies in the back kitchen disappeared, replaced by a small farmyard.

Because it was a completely imaginary scene, the practice room at this moment turned into Su Chen's favorite southern courtyard, surrounded by mountains and rivers. Outside the courtyard was a bamboo forest with a stream flowing slowly in the forest.

"It would be great if I could really live in this kind of mountains and rivers in the future!"

Su Chen is not good enough now. If a person lives in a place like this, he will probably become bored in a few days.

Su Chen had never tried cooking in a farmhouse's earthen stove, and the last time it was a family version of a gas stove.

He took a pile of firewood from the illusionary scene in the practice room, and as soon as his thoughts arose, the firewood ignited on its own.

That’s the great thing about the practice room!
No wonder there is a lack of energy in the set.

Otherwise, Su Chen is the supreme god in this world, and no one is willing to leave this kind of place.

Not daring to delay, Su Chen put the lit firewood into the earthen stove and placed a large iron pot on it.

"Don't be so strict about the heat requirements for the braised dishes in the banquet."

If Su Chen made braised vegetables by himself on weekdays, he would repeatedly adjust the heat to allow the soup to blend deeply with the ingredients.

But this is a big banquet!
You can't do that, otherwise you won't be able to make so many dishes.

"So in fact, the only test of the heat at this banquet is stir-frying."

I summoned a piece of prime pork belly at random, and added some green pepper and green garlic.

Su Chen is now preparing to make a simple twice-cooked pork dish. During the preparation process of this dish, the meat, base ingredients and vegetables are required to be fried.

The three ingredients require different firepower when stir-frying, but they cannot be stir-fried individually. They need to be stir-fried together to allow the flavors to blend with each other.

It can be said to be quite a test of fire.

Of course, if it is home-cooked, there is not so much emphasis on it. The so-called home-cooked food means that the taste is different in every household.

Su Chen likes to add green garlic and green pepper, while others like to use onions and hot peppers. The ingredients are different and the taste is different. As for how to make it, it really depends on personal taste.

Cut the skin-on pork belly into a square piece, add cold water to the iron pot and put it in.

While the water temperature has not yet come up, add onion segments, ginger slices, and a few peppercorns to the cold water. Finally, add three ounces of rice wine and start cooking!
"The current production is just testing the adjustment of the heat, so how can the heat of the firewood be adjusted?"

Taking advantage of the water temperature gradually rising, Su Chen began to look at this small farmer's earthen stove.

Su Chen grew up in the city, and most of his rural memories came from returning to his grandmother's house in the countryside when he was very young.

The earthen stove at grandma's house is not in the yard, but right at home. It can cook and heat at the same time. The fuel used is generally corn stalks.

Every household in rural areas has endless amounts of straw after the autumn harvest, but it burns very quickly, and you have to keep adding it to make a meal.

Now Su Chen is using ordinary firewood, which has a relatively long burning time, but the disadvantage is that the temperature is relatively low.

The instantaneous temperature of a fierce stove can reach one thousand degrees, while the maximum temperature of firewood is estimated to be around six hundred degrees.

"In other words, fried and stir-fried ingredients require more effort to control. Is that okay?"

Su Chen summoned a hair dryer out of thin air.

Aim the opening of the fan at the air inlet of the earthen stove. "When the air blows, the fire will definitely start faster, and the temperature will transfer faster."

The moment the hair dryer is started, you can clearly see the iron pot that was motionless just now. At this time, the water starts to emit the slightest trace of steam.

But when Su Chen turned off the hair dryer, the heat rose much slower.

"Take your time, there is still time."

What Su Chen has to do now is to control the distance between the hair dryer and the air inlet to try to make the heat reach a standard that he is satisfied with!

After the water boils, skim off the blood foam on the surface while inserting chopsticks into the meat pieces easily, then take the cooked pork belly out of the pot.

Looking at the iron pot, Su Chen felt that he was in trouble again.

If you are in a restaurant, just hold the pot to the faucet and rinse it.

this.
I had to hold the pot and pour out the water, then squat on the ground to wash the pot, and then put it back on the stove.

At this time, the firewood in the stove was almost burning, and Su Chen quickly added some more firewood.

You can't wait until it's finished burning before adding it, otherwise there will be gaps in the heat.

When the iron pot was put on the stove again, Su Chen was stunned and laughed.

"No wonder the hotel chef is no longer good at cooking when he returns to the countryside. This thing requires higher thinking than in a hotel."

Because the fire in the earthen stove is always burning.

When handling the ingredients, you have to take away the iron pot first, otherwise the bottom of the pot will burn down later.

The cooked pork belly is cut into coin-thick slices. Making twice-cooked pork requires extremely high thickness of the pork belly.

Many people don't know this technique. If it is cut too thin, it will be fried and broken. If it is cut too thick, it will taste too greasy. The thickness of a coin is just right.

Set aside the sliced ​​pork belly for later use, cut the ginger and garlic into slices, and cut the green onions diagonally into segments.

When he reached this point, he put the iron pot back on the earthen stove and added a very small amount of vegetable oil. Su Chen put his right hand on the oil to feel the temperature.

"It heats up much slower than a high-fire stove."

However, Su Chen also discovered the advantages of cooking with firewood, it is easier to maintain the temperature!

If you use this to stew meat, it will be perfect!
No wonder Northeastern people love to eat stews. Just make a big stew with this firewood, it is really awesome!
The oil warmed up a little, and Su Chen put in some chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns.

The function of this little bit of oil is to stir-fry the chili peppers to bring out the aroma. If you want this dish to taste fat but not greasy, the key is to have less oil.

After frying until the aroma comes out, pour all the sliced ​​pork belly slices into the pot.

"Stir fry over medium heat until translucent."

Su Chen turned on the hair dryer at his feet and pulled his right leg to keep the hair dryer about one meter away from the air outlet.

Even so, you can still feel that the firewood in the earthen stove is burning fiercely, and the meat slices in the iron pot begin to leak out traces of grease. After a while, it gathers into a nest of lard at the bottom of the pot.

After this operation, the pieces of meat gradually curled up inward and began to appear translucent.

The industry calls this state of meat a "lamp nest", as it looks like a lamp.

When Su Chen was about to move the hair dryer farther away, an idea suddenly came to his mind. That was a technique he used when participating in the "auction" in the food court, and it was also a method he often used to make golden egg fried rice.

"For golden egg fried rice, you need to pull the rice to the edge of the pot and keep the rice on a medium heat. The eggs are poured into the bottom of the pot and stir-fried over high heat. Is it also possible to use an earthen stove?"

This is just a try.

Su Chen did not move the hair dryer, but turned it off directly.

Tentatively, he pulled all the fried meat pieces to the edge of the pot, leaving the bubbling lard on the bottom of the pot.

Wait for the oil temperature to drop a little before putting the summoned bean paste into the oil.

"Zi La~"

Fortunately, Su Chen had white jade hands and was not afraid of the splashing oil spots. He stared at the oil spots and continued to add soy sauce and a little sweet noodle sauce.

The spatula quickly stir-fried all the meat oil and sauces together until it turned bright red, and then pulled back the meat pieces crawling on the side of the pot.

"It seems that it is really ok. When the meat slices are pulled to the edge of the pot, they are in a state of keeping warm and will not continue to fry."

If the temperature is too high and oil continues to come out, the meat slices will taste a little dry.

After stir-frying evenly, he added green garlic. Su Chen looked at the green peppers to be used and said, "Since I can probably control the heat, I won't use you today."

This is home cooking!

Do whatever you want!
Stir-fry the green garlic and meat slices for a while, drip some cooking wine along the edge of the pot, sprinkle some sugar on top, and lift the hair dryer to the air inlet and blow hard for a few seconds.

"Out of the pot!"

Needless to say, this dish is placed on a white jade plate, bright red in color, sizzling with oil, and paired with a little green garlic, at least it looks very appetizing.

He put it on the operating table and took a look.

"Class B?"

It's not possible at this level, but Su Chen basically knows where the problem lies.

Firstly, the ingredients used are not very accurate and too homely.

Furthermore, the seasoning is a bit simple, just the most basic spicy, salty and delicious.

If you want to advance to A level, it is actually very simple.

When cooking meat, first boil onions, ginger, garlic slices and Sichuan peppercorns. When the water in the pot boils and the aroma is released, turn off the heat and let it cool.

At this time, cook the meat. It can remove the fishy smell and at the same time give the pork belly a pre-cooking flavor. With this step, it is basically safe to upgrade to Grade A.

But this is not the point. It is an experimental dish and there is no need to be too serious.

Su Chen came out of the practice room, surprisingly smooth and did not consume much energy.

There is one more troublesome thing.

After getting off the plane, Liu Shengnan kept sending messages to Su Chen.

Now I finally have the time to return.

[Liu Shengnan: Brother Chen? Brother Chen! Why don't you reply! Could it be that you were riding in a black car? Where are people? 】

[Liu Shengnan: Brother Chen! I've booked a room for you. Have you eaten? Why don't you come back and have some food first? 】

[Liu Shengnan: Brother Chen, do you think this will work? I asked people to build five earthen stoves. Are they enough? This workbench is okay. It’s five meters long and two meters wide. It was cut by a carpenter! 】

Seeing the picture sent by Liu Shengnan, Su Chen zoomed in and looked at it for a long time.

Good guy.
These earthen stoves were all temporarily built, and the operating table was actually made on site.

"Liu Shengnan is quite prestigious when he goes to his in-laws' house, isn't he?"

Su Chen shook his head, smiled, and replied to the message.

[Su Chen: Send me the menu prepared by the previous chef. 】

Liu Shengnan didn't know if he was staring at his phone all the time, but Su Chen immediately replied with a picture within a few seconds of sending it.

[Liu Shengnan: 20 dishes! They actually want to do it themselves, I'm really speechless. If it weren't for your help, I definitely wouldn't have hosted this wedding banquet. Brother Chen, look, can you make these 20 dishes? If we really can’t do it, we’ll cut out a few dishes, and at the worst we can give them hot pot noodles! 】

Anyway, the hot pot noodles are so delicious, better than the dishes at the banquet1
Su Chen enlarged the picture again and looked at it.

This is a very traditional banquet dish. Basically, there are very few stir-fried vegetables, mostly braised vegetables and steamed vegetables.

The few stir-fried dishes are all done by putting the steamed ingredients into the pot and pulling them a few times. The level is not high, but it is very practical.

"If this can hold a wedding banquet, then can I also hold a big banquet?"

The ingredients prepared by Su Chen were somewhat different from these dishes.

According to custom, Su Chen used Jingzhou's local banquet standard, with 24 dishes per table.

This is a standard and a custom.

There are eight cold dishes and ten hot dishes, one of which is a big pot dish.

Cold dishes are appetizers, and they are also the first dishes for drinking guests. Hot dishes are dishes that make everyone feel comfortable eating with open arms. They are also the dishes that old men and women focus on packing!
Finally, there is just soup.

The preparation of the soup determines the standard of the banquet. Usually in Jingzhou, turtle soup is the highest standard of the banquet.

The second is chicken soup, and the third is egg drop soup. Jingzhou people are not good at making soup but love to drink soup. Most of the time, the soup at the banquet is not enough to drink, even if it is made very often.

Then there are five staple dishes, namely steamed buns, fried cakes, meatballs, dumplings, and siu mai.

It is said that Jingzhou people eat eight dishes, eight of which are staple foods, which is also reflected in the banquet.

Twenty-four dishes, five of which are staples.

Steamed buns, dumplings, and Shaomai are all dishes based on everyone's different preferences. The three staple foods can basically satisfy most people's "full" requirements.

Fried cakes symbolize rising to higher levels and have blessings in them.

The appearance of meatballs means that today's banquet dishes are over.

Among the ten hot dishes, in addition to the big pot dishes, there must be at least five hard dishes.

Hard food means that it looks really good!
Chicken, duck, fish and sheep are the most basic dishes. According to Jingzhou custom, these items are served whole, but of course the sheep are not.

Lamb is usually stewed lamb, grilled lamb chops, or cumin lamb shank.

Another hard dish is the elbow.

Modern people don't like greasy food. Most people at banquets leave their elbows untouched and end up packing them away whole.

Don’t tell me, you don’t want to eat this thing at the banquet, but it’s quite delicious when you take it home!

There is another dish that is not too hard and must appear, the pork belly!
It doesn’t matter whether it is braised pork with fermented bean curd or braised pork with pickled vegetables, but this dish must be included, and it will appear with lotus leaf cake.

Su Chen sorted through the approximate dishes and found that there were actually not many dishes that he could freely use. Many of the dishes were required dishes according to customs. Changing them randomly would be disrespectful to the guests to a certain extent.

After having a meal, thoughtful people may even say: So-and-so’s banquet is really bad, and they don’t even have an elbow.

This is a joke!

Roughly plan the hot dishes and main dishes, and finally the cold dishes.

Jingzhou’s cold dishes are particularly interesting, including beef with sauce, tiger skin and chicken feet, pork head, and pig’s trotters with sauce.

These four cold dishes are indispensable, and they are kind of the hard dishes in cold dishes.

The other four dishes are vegetarian dishes, and the interesting thing is this vegetarian dish!

Su Chen always felt that Jingzhou was already a food desert, so he couldn't even understand the dishes for a banquet.

For vegetarian cold dishes, mix one with lotus root slices and one with almonds.

So can’t lotus root slices and almonds be mixed together?

What Su Chen wants now is to make an advanced version of these less fixed dishes. After all, this is Liu Shengnan's wedding, and he is the first person in his company to get married!
I offered to help again, but I didn't do it too often. Wouldn't that be a slap in the face?
I modified the dishes on my mobile phone over and over again, and at the same time, I also made reference to the dishes in famous Chinese recipes.

Even after studying something interesting, Su Chen went directly into the practice room to make it on the spot.

When you are busy, time flies by.

It was completely dark outside, and there was a sudden sound of brakes.

“Brother, Han’s store is here!”

Su Chen saved the dish content on his phone without raising his head, "The money has been paid."

"okay!"

Opening the car door, the fresh night air hits your face.

Along with it came a familiar female voice.

"boss!"

(End of this chapter)